The Narendra Modi-Xi Jinping summit commenced on Friday in the Chinese city of Wuhan, with the Indian Prime Minister and Chinese President holding a one-on-one meeting after witnessing a cultural show at the Hubei Provincial Museum. Xi and Modi will hold another meeting at 6 pm (local time) in the presence of delegations from both sides. These meetings will be different from past such encounters as the talks will be freewheeling, instead of choreographed. Further, only one Mandarin-speaking Indian interpreter will be present.
The Wuhan summit will see Modi and Xi reportedly discuss issues ranging from US President Donald Trump's trade policies, protectionism, globalisation, Xi's ambitious Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) to the India-China border dispute, even as the two leaders take lakeside walks and boat rides together. Modi offered to host the next informal summit with Xi Jinping in India next year, a proposal which elicited a positive response from the Chinese president.
During his delegation-level talks, Modi said such informal summits should become a tradition between the two countries. "I'll be happy, if in 2019, we can have such informal summit in India," Modi told Xi. On his part, President Xi said the two countries have established closer partnership and made positive progress in recent years. "In the past five years, we have achieved a lot. We have met each other on many occasions," he said.
With the future of Sino-Indian ties hanging in the balance, Chinese President Xi is hosting Modi for the informal summit where officials said the two leaders would spend most of their time interacting in one-on-one conversations. According to official statements from both sides, the Modi-Xi summit aims to create a broad framework for India-China ties and build trust between the two leaders. The summit is being seen as an effort by India and China to rebuild trust and improve ties, which have faced stumbling blocks and were hit by the 73-day-long Doklam standoff last year.
Even though official sources have said that the Modi-Xi summit will eschew looking into specific issues in favour of the big picture of India-China ties, a section of the Chinese media has accorded high importance to the summit. The Modi-Xi Jinping Wuhan summit could be as significant as the one between former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and the then leader of China Deng Xiaoping in 1988, the official Chinese media commented on Tuesday.
Here are the top 10 developments around the two-day Narendra Modi-Xi Jinping Wuhan summit in China that starts today:
1) Congress slams Modi, asks will he call out China on Doklam: With the Modi-Xi Wuhan summit underway, the Congress on Friday asked if the prime minister was going to confront China over the Doklam issue during his visit. In a series of tweets, Congress communications in-charge Randeep Singh Surjewala attacked the Modi government and accused it of being incapable of sending a strong message to China. "As Modi ji 'hugs' his friend, President Xi Jinping today in Wuhan, China, will he remember his innate duty to protect India's strategic interests and question China on occupation of Dokalam impacting India's national security?" said Surjewala.
Congress said that India was facing an "increasingly aggressive China", which was intruding into the 'Chicken's Neck' -- Siliguri Corridor -- by building a new road through south of Doklam. The party asked why the Modi government was without of clue and incapable of sending "a strong message to China". Surjewala referred to visits of External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to China for bilateral meetings with their counterparts earlier this month and asked if Modi would accept that they had "abdicated their duty" by not raising the Doklam issue.
"Does the Prime Minister accept the failure of his Cabinet Ministers (Defence and EAM) to confront China on creation of 'full-fledged Chinese Military Complex' in Doklam right up to 10m from Indian Army post, during their visit on April 20-24 as an abdication of their duty to the Nation?" Surjewala asked.
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A special moment past midnight as PM @narendramodi was warmly welcomed in Wuhan for the 1st Informal Summit with Chinese President Xi. The two leaders will review the developments in our bilateral relations from a strategic and long-term perspective.
10:19 PM - Apr 26, 2018
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2) Modi, Xi begin summit; PM talks of earlier visit to Wuhan: Prime Minister Modi and Chinese President Xi on Friday began their two-day informal summit with a one-on-one meeting in China's Wuhan. Before the one-on-one, the leaders witnessed a cultural programme at the Hubei Provincial Museum. Modi arrived at the museum at around 3.30 pm (local time) and warmly shook Xi's hand for 30 seconds. Both leaders took a tour of the site for around an hour. Chinese Ambassador to India Luo Zhaohui tweeted: "First handshake between President Xi and PM Modi in Wuhan, where they will make history. Let us expect together."
During the meeting, Modi told Xi that he had the opportunity to visit Wuhan when he was the chief minister of Gujarat. "I had heard a lot about the Three Gorges Dam. The speed with which you constructed it and the scale inspired me. So I came on a study tour, spent a day at the dam," said Modi.
The Prime Minister also stressed the cultural similarities between the two Asian giants. "Culture of both India and China is based along the river banks, if we talk about Mohenjo Daro and Harappa civilisations in India, all the development happened along river banks," Modi told Xi.
After touring the museum, Modi and Xi, accompanied by six top officials from each side, will hold talks at the sprawling East Lake Guest House, where Xi is staying. This will be followed by the leaders' walk. Dinner will be hosted by Chinese President Xi at the guest house in central Wuhan.
Read our previous copy on Chinese media's coverage of the Modi-Xi summit in China: Modi-Xi Wuhan summit: Why Chinese media thinks it's a good idea; 10 points
3) Modi-Xi meet 'new chapter in China-India relations': The influential hardline daily Global Times, under the headline ‘Informal Modi-Xi meeting heralds a new chapter in Sino-Indian relations’ has suggested that during the Wuhan meeting, "China should let India know that Beijing does not define New Delhi as an opponent nor seek to hinder its development”. It further states that "China encourages India and Pakistan to resolve (the) Kashmir conflict in a peaceful way".
The Global Times further suggested that "China should convince India that (the) China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (project) is based on promoting economic cooperation" and "does not influence China's neutrality".
It also cautioned India not to use Tibet as a bargaining chip.
Read our previous copy on Chinese media's coverage of the Modi-Xi summit in China: Modi-Xi Jinping summit: An honest try for better Sino-India ties; 10 points
4) India and China should 'firmly stick to free trade': State-run news agency Xinhua wrote that the "tete-e-tete between the two leaders was going to set the stage for Beijing and New Delhi to further exchange views over (the) long-term and strategic issues and to initiate fresh momentum for future bilateral cooperation". Placing emphasis on global trade issues, the Xinhua commentary said both Xi and Modi had warned on different occasions of the dire threats of trade barriers to the world economy and that "both countries should firmly stick to the spirit of free trade so as to help maintain current global free trading system with the WTO as (the Centre)".
5) A boat ride without aides for Modi and Xi tomorrow: Modi and Xi will have an opportunity on Saturday to spend time without their aides, with the Chinese President taking the Indian Prime Minister for a lakeside walk and a boat ride on the picturesque East Lake. This will be followed by a private lunch hosted by the Chinese President.
ALSO READ: Modi-Xi to have 'heart-to-heart' summit to charter new course for India-China ties
No joint statement on Modi-Xi talks: No joint statement or communique will be issued after the Modi-Xi Jinping summit concludes. Sources told news agencies that the informal talks will be broad-based and overarching and no specific issues will be discussed. The idea is to open a strategic communication channel at the highest level.
Narendra Modi
✔
@narendramodi
26 Apr
I will be visiting Wuhan, China on 27-28 April 2018 for an Informal Summit with Mr. Xi Jinping, President of the People's Republic of China.
Narendra Modi
✔
@narendramodi
President Xi and I will exchange views on a range of issues of bilateral and global importance. We will discuss our respective visions and priorities for national development, particularly in the context of current and future international situation.
3:04 PM - Apr 26, 2018
5,308
1,481 people are talking about this
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Narendra Modi
✔
@narendramodi
Replying to @narendramodi
We will also review the developments in India-China relations from a strategic and long-term perspective.
3:04 PM - Apr 26, 2018
5,401
1,771 people are talking about this
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6) Why an informal meeting instead of an actual summit? Both New Delhi and Beijing have stressed that this is an informal meeting, rather than a summit, as a way, hopefully, to get more done. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said, "It can provide a comfortable atmosphere for the two countries' leaders to have full and deep exchanges on important issues of mutual concern."
Chinese state television, news agency Reuters reported, had said in its commentary that often, more gets done at informal meetings, when people can speak their minds. By way of an example, it pointed to the success of informal talks between Xi and then-US President Barack Obama in 2013 in California.
Read the Business Standard editorial comment on the Modi-Xi Jinping Wuhan summit: No longer a counterweight: What lies behind the India-China 'reset'?
7) Modi, Xi look to end decades of distrust amid significant differences: Officials have told news agencies that the Modi-Xi Jinping summit is aimed at ending decades of distrust between the two Asian giants, which has deepened as China, with an economy five times bigger than India's, asserts itself in the region.
Further, despite the optimism about the summit in certain quarters, India and China's differences are significant. Apart from disputes over stretches of a 3,500 km (2,200 miles) border, which came to a head during last year's Doklam standoff, the Asian giants are bumping up against each other in the Indian Ocean and don't see eye to eye over China's Belt and Road infrastructure initiative.
In fact, as recently as on Tuesday, New Delhi signalled its opposition to the BRI because one of its branches, the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), runs through Pakistani-occupied Kashmir, which India claims.
On the other side, Biejing has been concerned over US efforts to draw India into a maritime "quad" of democracies, including Japan and Australia, in a part of the world they have begun calling the "Indo-Pacific" instead of the "Asia-Pacific".
Further, China's opposition to India's entry into the Nuclear Suppliers Group and its application at the United Nations to declare Pakistan-based terrorist group chief Masood Azhar as a global terrorist are some of the irritants that have hampered Sino-Indian ties in the recent past.
ALSO READ: One-on-one talks at museum, walks by lake side and boat ride to mark Modi-Xi 'heart-to-heart' summit
8) Hopes of a big India-China reset could be misplaced: Hopes of a big India-China reset at the Modi-Xi Wuhan summit are misplaced, Jabin T Jacob, a senior China analyst based in New Delhi, wrote for Business Standard. Instead, Jacob argued, the India-China 'reset' as envisaged by the Modi government has the "very strong domestic context of several major state-level elections later this year and the general elections next year". Further, Jacob wrote that the Modi government had two major expectations from the summit -- fewer border transgressions and better economic ties. However, he stressed that both these hopes, at best, lay on shaky grounds.
Read Business Standard special on the Modi-Xi Wuhan summit, where senior China analyst Jabin T Jacob argues that hopes of a big reset are misplaced
Concerning India-China tensions at the Line of Actual Control, Jacob argued that while the Modi-Xi summit will be spun on both sides as being successful, it is "hardly likely that transgressions will stop or that the next big one is not around the corner".
A 'really good' time to talk: A section of experts has exuded confidence that the Modi-Xi summit will strengthen bilateral relations.
Former ambassador Rajiv Bhatia expressed his optimism on Prime Minister Modi's visit to China. Bhatia told news agencies, "Both the countries have many differences but this will change for sure. Questions like Doklam and other border questions are complex and old questions but everything will be sorted out by sitting together."
Pankaj Jha, an international relations expert, said that it seems that Modi wants to take some political risk through this summit. Jha told news agencies "In the past 2-3 years, nothing constructive has come out of the previous talks between the leaders. With respect to this summit in Wuhan, Prime Minister Modi wants to take some political risk, either regarding the border or the trade issue." He further said that the Prime Minister may also raise the Tibet issue to know the Chinese President's views on the same.
Anil Wadhwa, ex-ambassador to China, said that the summit is expected to bring out some positive results. "The timing of the summit is really good. Discussion will be held on all the bilateral issues," Wadhwa said. When asked about the allegation that India is frightened of China with respect to the Doklam issue, he said, "It is not right to say that. Prime Minister Modi had discussed this issue with Xi Jinping at the G-20 summit. Both the sides have maturely diffused the situation."
ALSO READ: Modi, Xi may arrive at consensus on 'outstanding issues', boundary row
9) PLA says ready to use Modi-Xi consensus to improve ties with Indian Army: Ahead of the Modi-Xi talks, China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) on Thursday struck a positive note about Sino-Indian ties and the Wuhan summit. Addressing the media in Beijing, PLA's Senior Colonel Wu Qian said that despite problems, the two militaries can improve their relations under the guidelines set by the two leaders. "Although the relations between the two militaries still face some difficulties and obstacles, we are willing to use the important consensus of the leaders of the two countries as guidelines to deepen our understanding, increase mutual trust, make proper differences, and continuously accumulate the positive energy of the healthy and stable development of the relations between the two militaries," Wu said.
ALSO READ: Modi-Xi meet could stabilise military ties, maintain peace at borders: Chinese military
10) Modi-Xi meeting at Mao Zedong's favourite holiday spot: The East Lake in Wuhan city, where Modi and Xi will spend most of their time, was a favourite holiday spot for Mao Zedong, the founding father of the People's Republic of China. The picturesque garden adjacent to the mighty Yangtze river is also where Mao used to enjoy swimming, his favourite pastime. The place also has Mao's iconic holiday villa, which is now a memorial where Xi is expected to take Modi around.
The Wuhan summit will see Modi and Xi reportedly discuss issues ranging from US President Donald Trump's trade policies, protectionism, globalisation, Xi's ambitious Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) to the India-China border dispute, even as the two leaders take lakeside walks and boat rides together. Modi offered to host the next informal summit with Xi Jinping in India next year, a proposal which elicited a positive response from the Chinese president.
During his delegation-level talks, Modi said such informal summits should become a tradition between the two countries. "I'll be happy, if in 2019, we can have such informal summit in India," Modi told Xi. On his part, President Xi said the two countries have established closer partnership and made positive progress in recent years. "In the past five years, we have achieved a lot. We have met each other on many occasions," he said.
With the future of Sino-Indian ties hanging in the balance, Chinese President Xi is hosting Modi for the informal summit where officials said the two leaders would spend most of their time interacting in one-on-one conversations. According to official statements from both sides, the Modi-Xi summit aims to create a broad framework for India-China ties and build trust between the two leaders. The summit is being seen as an effort by India and China to rebuild trust and improve ties, which have faced stumbling blocks and were hit by the 73-day-long Doklam standoff last year.
Even though official sources have said that the Modi-Xi summit will eschew looking into specific issues in favour of the big picture of India-China ties, a section of the Chinese media has accorded high importance to the summit. The Modi-Xi Jinping Wuhan summit could be as significant as the one between former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and the then leader of China Deng Xiaoping in 1988, the official Chinese media commented on Tuesday.
Here are the top 10 developments around the two-day Narendra Modi-Xi Jinping Wuhan summit in China that starts today:
1) Congress slams Modi, asks will he call out China on Doklam: With the Modi-Xi Wuhan summit underway, the Congress on Friday asked if the prime minister was going to confront China over the Doklam issue during his visit. In a series of tweets, Congress communications in-charge Randeep Singh Surjewala attacked the Modi government and accused it of being incapable of sending a strong message to China. "As Modi ji 'hugs' his friend, President Xi Jinping today in Wuhan, China, will he remember his innate duty to protect India's strategic interests and question China on occupation of Dokalam impacting India's national security?" said Surjewala.
Congress said that India was facing an "increasingly aggressive China", which was intruding into the 'Chicken's Neck' -- Siliguri Corridor -- by building a new road through south of Doklam. The party asked why the Modi government was without of clue and incapable of sending "a strong message to China". Surjewala referred to visits of External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to China for bilateral meetings with their counterparts earlier this month and asked if Modi would accept that they had "abdicated their duty" by not raising the Doklam issue.
"Does the Prime Minister accept the failure of his Cabinet Ministers (Defence and EAM) to confront China on creation of 'full-fledged Chinese Military Complex' in Doklam right up to 10m from Indian Army post, during their visit on April 20-24 as an abdication of their duty to the Nation?" Surjewala asked.
View image on TwitterView image on TwitterView image on Twitter
ANI
✔
@ANI
Visuals of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping's one on one meeting in #China's Wuhan.
1:12 PM - Apr 27, 2018
327
92 people are talking about this
Twitter Ads info and privacy
ANI
✔
@ANI
#WATCH: Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping witness a cultural programme at Hubei Provincial Museum. #Wuhan
1:10 PM - Apr 27, 2018
253
89 people are talking about this
Twitter Ads info and privacy
View image on TwitterView image on Twitter
Raveesh Kumar
✔
@MEAIndia
A special moment past midnight as PM @narendramodi was warmly welcomed in Wuhan for the 1st Informal Summit with Chinese President Xi. The two leaders will review the developments in our bilateral relations from a strategic and long-term perspective.
10:19 PM - Apr 26, 2018
630
176 people are talking about this
Twitter Ads info and privacy
2) Modi, Xi begin summit; PM talks of earlier visit to Wuhan: Prime Minister Modi and Chinese President Xi on Friday began their two-day informal summit with a one-on-one meeting in China's Wuhan. Before the one-on-one, the leaders witnessed a cultural programme at the Hubei Provincial Museum. Modi arrived at the museum at around 3.30 pm (local time) and warmly shook Xi's hand for 30 seconds. Both leaders took a tour of the site for around an hour. Chinese Ambassador to India Luo Zhaohui tweeted: "First handshake between President Xi and PM Modi in Wuhan, where they will make history. Let us expect together."
During the meeting, Modi told Xi that he had the opportunity to visit Wuhan when he was the chief minister of Gujarat. "I had heard a lot about the Three Gorges Dam. The speed with which you constructed it and the scale inspired me. So I came on a study tour, spent a day at the dam," said Modi.
The Prime Minister also stressed the cultural similarities between the two Asian giants. "Culture of both India and China is based along the river banks, if we talk about Mohenjo Daro and Harappa civilisations in India, all the development happened along river banks," Modi told Xi.
After touring the museum, Modi and Xi, accompanied by six top officials from each side, will hold talks at the sprawling East Lake Guest House, where Xi is staying. This will be followed by the leaders' walk. Dinner will be hosted by Chinese President Xi at the guest house in central Wuhan.
Read our previous copy on Chinese media's coverage of the Modi-Xi summit in China: Modi-Xi Wuhan summit: Why Chinese media thinks it's a good idea; 10 points
3) Modi-Xi meet 'new chapter in China-India relations': The influential hardline daily Global Times, under the headline ‘Informal Modi-Xi meeting heralds a new chapter in Sino-Indian relations’ has suggested that during the Wuhan meeting, "China should let India know that Beijing does not define New Delhi as an opponent nor seek to hinder its development”. It further states that "China encourages India and Pakistan to resolve (the) Kashmir conflict in a peaceful way".
The Global Times further suggested that "China should convince India that (the) China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (project) is based on promoting economic cooperation" and "does not influence China's neutrality".
It also cautioned India not to use Tibet as a bargaining chip.
Read our previous copy on Chinese media's coverage of the Modi-Xi summit in China: Modi-Xi Jinping summit: An honest try for better Sino-India ties; 10 points
4) India and China should 'firmly stick to free trade': State-run news agency Xinhua wrote that the "tete-e-tete between the two leaders was going to set the stage for Beijing and New Delhi to further exchange views over (the) long-term and strategic issues and to initiate fresh momentum for future bilateral cooperation". Placing emphasis on global trade issues, the Xinhua commentary said both Xi and Modi had warned on different occasions of the dire threats of trade barriers to the world economy and that "both countries should firmly stick to the spirit of free trade so as to help maintain current global free trading system with the WTO as (the Centre)".
5) A boat ride without aides for Modi and Xi tomorrow: Modi and Xi will have an opportunity on Saturday to spend time without their aides, with the Chinese President taking the Indian Prime Minister for a lakeside walk and a boat ride on the picturesque East Lake. This will be followed by a private lunch hosted by the Chinese President.
ALSO READ: Modi-Xi to have 'heart-to-heart' summit to charter new course for India-China ties
No joint statement on Modi-Xi talks: No joint statement or communique will be issued after the Modi-Xi Jinping summit concludes. Sources told news agencies that the informal talks will be broad-based and overarching and no specific issues will be discussed. The idea is to open a strategic communication channel at the highest level.
Narendra Modi
✔
@narendramodi
26 Apr
I will be visiting Wuhan, China on 27-28 April 2018 for an Informal Summit with Mr. Xi Jinping, President of the People's Republic of China.
Narendra Modi
✔
@narendramodi
President Xi and I will exchange views on a range of issues of bilateral and global importance. We will discuss our respective visions and priorities for national development, particularly in the context of current and future international situation.
3:04 PM - Apr 26, 2018
5,308
1,481 people are talking about this
Twitter Ads info and privacy
Narendra Modi
✔
@narendramodi
Replying to @narendramodi
We will also review the developments in India-China relations from a strategic and long-term perspective.
3:04 PM - Apr 26, 2018
5,401
1,771 people are talking about this
Twitter Ads info and privacy
6) Why an informal meeting instead of an actual summit? Both New Delhi and Beijing have stressed that this is an informal meeting, rather than a summit, as a way, hopefully, to get more done. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said, "It can provide a comfortable atmosphere for the two countries' leaders to have full and deep exchanges on important issues of mutual concern."
Chinese state television, news agency Reuters reported, had said in its commentary that often, more gets done at informal meetings, when people can speak their minds. By way of an example, it pointed to the success of informal talks between Xi and then-US President Barack Obama in 2013 in California.
Read the Business Standard editorial comment on the Modi-Xi Jinping Wuhan summit: No longer a counterweight: What lies behind the India-China 'reset'?
7) Modi, Xi look to end decades of distrust amid significant differences: Officials have told news agencies that the Modi-Xi Jinping summit is aimed at ending decades of distrust between the two Asian giants, which has deepened as China, with an economy five times bigger than India's, asserts itself in the region.
Further, despite the optimism about the summit in certain quarters, India and China's differences are significant. Apart from disputes over stretches of a 3,500 km (2,200 miles) border, which came to a head during last year's Doklam standoff, the Asian giants are bumping up against each other in the Indian Ocean and don't see eye to eye over China's Belt and Road infrastructure initiative.
In fact, as recently as on Tuesday, New Delhi signalled its opposition to the BRI because one of its branches, the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), runs through Pakistani-occupied Kashmir, which India claims.
On the other side, Biejing has been concerned over US efforts to draw India into a maritime "quad" of democracies, including Japan and Australia, in a part of the world they have begun calling the "Indo-Pacific" instead of the "Asia-Pacific".
Further, China's opposition to India's entry into the Nuclear Suppliers Group and its application at the United Nations to declare Pakistan-based terrorist group chief Masood Azhar as a global terrorist are some of the irritants that have hampered Sino-Indian ties in the recent past.
ALSO READ: One-on-one talks at museum, walks by lake side and boat ride to mark Modi-Xi 'heart-to-heart' summit
8) Hopes of a big India-China reset could be misplaced: Hopes of a big India-China reset at the Modi-Xi Wuhan summit are misplaced, Jabin T Jacob, a senior China analyst based in New Delhi, wrote for Business Standard. Instead, Jacob argued, the India-China 'reset' as envisaged by the Modi government has the "very strong domestic context of several major state-level elections later this year and the general elections next year". Further, Jacob wrote that the Modi government had two major expectations from the summit -- fewer border transgressions and better economic ties. However, he stressed that both these hopes, at best, lay on shaky grounds.
Read Business Standard special on the Modi-Xi Wuhan summit, where senior China analyst Jabin T Jacob argues that hopes of a big reset are misplaced
Concerning India-China tensions at the Line of Actual Control, Jacob argued that while the Modi-Xi summit will be spun on both sides as being successful, it is "hardly likely that transgressions will stop or that the next big one is not around the corner".
A 'really good' time to talk: A section of experts has exuded confidence that the Modi-Xi summit will strengthen bilateral relations.
Former ambassador Rajiv Bhatia expressed his optimism on Prime Minister Modi's visit to China. Bhatia told news agencies, "Both the countries have many differences but this will change for sure. Questions like Doklam and other border questions are complex and old questions but everything will be sorted out by sitting together."
Pankaj Jha, an international relations expert, said that it seems that Modi wants to take some political risk through this summit. Jha told news agencies "In the past 2-3 years, nothing constructive has come out of the previous talks between the leaders. With respect to this summit in Wuhan, Prime Minister Modi wants to take some political risk, either regarding the border or the trade issue." He further said that the Prime Minister may also raise the Tibet issue to know the Chinese President's views on the same.
Anil Wadhwa, ex-ambassador to China, said that the summit is expected to bring out some positive results. "The timing of the summit is really good. Discussion will be held on all the bilateral issues," Wadhwa said. When asked about the allegation that India is frightened of China with respect to the Doklam issue, he said, "It is not right to say that. Prime Minister Modi had discussed this issue with Xi Jinping at the G-20 summit. Both the sides have maturely diffused the situation."
ALSO READ: Modi, Xi may arrive at consensus on 'outstanding issues', boundary row
9) PLA says ready to use Modi-Xi consensus to improve ties with Indian Army: Ahead of the Modi-Xi talks, China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) on Thursday struck a positive note about Sino-Indian ties and the Wuhan summit. Addressing the media in Beijing, PLA's Senior Colonel Wu Qian said that despite problems, the two militaries can improve their relations under the guidelines set by the two leaders. "Although the relations between the two militaries still face some difficulties and obstacles, we are willing to use the important consensus of the leaders of the two countries as guidelines to deepen our understanding, increase mutual trust, make proper differences, and continuously accumulate the positive energy of the healthy and stable development of the relations between the two militaries," Wu said.
ALSO READ: Modi-Xi meet could stabilise military ties, maintain peace at borders: Chinese military
10) Modi-Xi meeting at Mao Zedong's favourite holiday spot: The East Lake in Wuhan city, where Modi and Xi will spend most of their time, was a favourite holiday spot for Mao Zedong, the founding father of the People's Republic of China. The picturesque garden adjacent to the mighty Yangtze river is also where Mao used to enjoy swimming, his favourite pastime. The place also has Mao's iconic holiday villa, which is now a memorial where Xi is expected to take Modi around.
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